There are several offshore platform concepts that have been proposed for use as drilling and producing platforms in deep water. Some of those platform concepts are designed to permit that platform to move in response to wave forces. One such design is the guyed tower. In the guying system for a guyed tower, guylines or ropes are run from the platform to anchor systems on the ocean floor. The guy ropes are secured at the platform deck by cable grips in a rope tensioning device and pass around deflecting devices or fairleads located below the water surface. The guy ropes then travel outwardly at an angle from the vertical to the anchoring system.
In the past both sheave and shoe type rope-deflecting devices have been proposed for use at the tower-guy rope juncture. Each type, however, must accommodate for misalignments of the tower and the anchor piles in order to minimize wear and fatigue of the guyed ropes. Swivel type deflecting devices have been suggested for this purpose. In the case where tensioning devices are located within the interior of the tower structure a deflecting device should be positioned within the interior of the tower directly below the tensioning device. The use of a swivel type deflecting device would result in interferences between the rope and internal structural elements. The problem then is to deflect a taut rope from the interior of the tower into the direction of the anchoring systems without interference from structural elements of the tower. The direction of the anchoring systems to the deflecting device may not be known exactly and, further, may vary with time as the tower may rotate. Such deflecting must not damage the rope by excessive static or cyclic straining or by wearing and clearance requirements within the tower itself must be met.